The deep wells installed over many years appeared to be doing a great job, and may have done in other locations. However the context of arsenic-tainted deep aquifers turned a life-saving technology into a deadly one.

Development consultant and arsenic whisteblower Dipankar Chakraborti claims that arsenic removal plants (ARPs) installed in Bangladesh by UNDP and WHO were a colossal waste of funds due to breakdowns, inconvenient placements and lack of quality control.[1]

Is there an affordable and practical way of testing water for arsenic levels, suitable for poor and remote areas? This is important for knowing when to treat, and also checking whether a Sono filter is currently working. If so, please add information or link from here. If not, this could be an important project.[Suggested project]

It can be argued that the contaminated wells saved and extended lives overall, because while arsenicosis can kill in decades, the use of untreated surface water can lead to cholera and other diseases which kill in days. While this is an important perspective, it does not mean that the deep wells were a good decision - there may have been other more appropriate technologies, such as storage tanks and simple filters for surface water, that would have saved lives in the short term, without exposure to arsenic.